Outside the Lowes Hotel on the
corner of Market & 12th Streets in Philadelphia.

When:

Saturday February 9, 2008 at 5:30
pm.

Why:

We will be holding a vigil outside
of the dinner to focus attention on the exclusion of transgender
Americans from the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act and on the
Human Rights Campaigns' reversal of policy in agreeing to accept a bill
that does not cover the entire LGBT community. The HRC not only worked
towards this exclusion of the transgender members of the LGBT community
from this bill, they misrepresented their intentions in this matter to
Philadelphia's LGBT leadership and to the transgender community on this
extremely important issue.

Transgender people are the most
vulnerable group in the LGBT community. Transgender people experience
employment discrimination at rates that are orders of magnitude higher
than the general population. In Philadelphia – over 60% of transgender
woman are unemployed as are over 30% of transgender men (Kenagy 2005 –
in Health and Social Work). The human and social costs resulting from
such levels of discrimination negatively effect the entire community.
The Baltimore Homeless Census released this September reported that 7%
of homeless children identified as transgender. These children are often
forced to leave their homes after their gender identity becomes known.
The Southern Poverty Law Centers Special Report on Transgender Hate
Murders "Disposable People" notes: "While the FBI reported a total of 11
U.S. murders motivated by racial, religious, or sexual-orientation bias
in 2002, the Intelligence Report has documented 14 murders of
transgendered people in the U.S. in that one year."

Our common goal is passage of a
fair and inclusive employment nondiscrimination statute. Any version of
this law that fails to securely protect the LGBT community against
workplace discrimination is a law not worth having and we urge you to
oppose it. Several elected officials are being asked to help educate HRC
on transgender issues and the need for legislation that covers the
entire community.